The Chinese Car

The ever insightful Philip Greenspun ruminates on the death of the American car industry:

You can buy a 27" TV for less than $200. It is made in China. If someone asks you what brand of TV you have, unless you're a geek with no life, you won't have a clue. You don't see ads for Daewoo or Apex TVs. When it breaks you throw it out. Forty years ago the TV industry employed at least one million Americans. TVs were made here. They cost so much that they needed to be financed, thus creating jobs in banks. If they broke every neighborhood had a TV repairman to come out and service the machine. Some of the most expensive advertising campaigns of the day were for [TVs]. Consequently, consumers were intensely brand-loyal and proud to own an RCA, a Philco or whatever.